NEWS

UK Patent Office Fees Set to Increase

UK Intel­lec­tu­al Prop­er­ty Office (UKIPO) fees are set to increase in April 2018 fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of a recent gov­ern­ment con­sul­ta­tion. The UKIPO fee struc­ture is attrac­tive in that it offers a com­par­a­tive­ly low-cost route to secur­ing patent pro­tec­tion. The pro­pos­als will see a range of increas­es for elec­tron­ic (online) patent appli­ca­tions (paper appli­ca­tion charges may be high­er still) and will involve increas­es to appli­ca­tion fees, search fees, exam­i­na­tion and some renew­al fees; and the intro­duc­tion of excess claims fees and excess page fees. Spe­cif­ic changes will include:

Appli­ca­tion fees will increase to £60; an addi­tion­al 25% sur­charge will be payable if the fee is not paid at the time of fil­ing

Search fees will increase to £150 and excess claims fee of £20 for the 26th and any sub­se­quent claims will be payable

Exam­i­na­tion fees will increase to £100 and an excess page fee of £10 for each of the 36th and sub­se­quent pages will be payable

Renew­al fees will increase by £10 for years 12 onwards

More infor­ma­tion on the government’s patent fee con­sul­ta­tion is avail­able by click­ing here.